He built a club on many attributes, prominent among which were youth development and a flamboyance of style. And even Sir Alex Ferguson’s final match genuflected to the memory of Sir Matt Busby, for 5-5 was not so very different from the 5-4 victory at Arsenal — Manchester United also let slip a three-goal lead that day — that preceded the Munich crash in 1958.

The tributes to Ferguson have been deficient only in terms of recognition that, although he was unquestionably one of the greatest managers ever, he was not necessarily United’s greatest.

Ferguson took six-and-a-half seasons to move United from fourth, where they had finished in Ron Atkinson’s last full campaign, to first. When Busby arrived in 1945, Old Trafford was a bomb site and United had spent the pre-war seasons moving between First Division and Second. Yet immediately he established them as a top club. In each of his first three seasons, they finished runners-up. In the second, they won the FA Cup. The Busby Babes became champions in year six and in 1955 began to dominate the game, winning two more titles consecutively and blazing a trail for England on the new stage known as the European Cup.

When tragedy struck, they were on their way home from a victory over Red Star Belgrade so impressive that it was felt they might even knock Real Madrid off their perch. Who can say what that United team would have done, except that, given their youth and the outstanding quality of players such as Duncan Edwards and Eddie Colman, their powers would have been unlikely to diminish?

Nor did Busby, though nearly killed along with several of his beloved players, give up. He tried again and made United twice champions before they became the first English club to rule Europe in 1968. When he retired, he left nowhere near as healthy a squad as Ferguson has done. But there could be no higher praise of Ferguson than to say that he filled Busby’s shoes.